How To Draw Classic Fantasy Castles
80Castle Drawing: A Few Rules To Sketch By
Just like drawing anything, castles have their own way of drawing them and these are what make them look rather good, but first there is an excellent resource that has lots of reference pictures of castles and castle ruins from all over the world and it is great to take parts of existing castles and make your own fantasy castle that just exists in your own made up worlds.
Here is that website:
Now there are only a few rules that I like to apply to my castles, just avoid these rules if you'd rather do your own castles.
First - The castle has to be located on an impossibly balanced ruin of a mountain as that is part of the charm of castles.
Second - Lots of towers equals a large castle
Third - A full moon in the background with lots of dark clouds just sets it off for me.
Fourth - A visible entrance or doorway.
And that is the simple rules that I myself always go by when drawing castles.
A Shaded Castle Drawing
Setting Up The Castle Scene
A Castles First Lines
The initial drawing stage of working out your castle drawing is the best stage for drawing it is the process of making your drawing work based on an idea that you may have at the back of your mind or at the forefront of your creative thoughts.
Seeing this idea transfer to paper is the exciting part and most satisfying when you get it right almost straight away. Castles always work best when you look at what castles look like today in real life and then do the exact opposite when it's time to draw the castle building.
The drawing to the right is the essential foundation of the next stage, which is as I always say, the defining stage, the process of filling in some of the gaps by random lines and made up pencil marks to form the basis of your castle building as best you can to your ability.
Defining The Towers And Structure Of The Castle
Towers And Details Of Your Castle
It's important to draw and define your towers and windows at this point aswell as some structural issues to help support the fact that your castle is standing on one of the worlds most unstable mountain ruins.
At this point, adding more solid lines that you know are going to stay is the order of the day and also finding out where your light source is going to come from is important for the next step.
The details don't have to be exact at this stage as you can work this out in the trasition of this step to the next and be sure that all of your composition works because next we wil start to add some of the background elements to create a scene that looks like it exists and is part of a full fantasy world.
Heavier Pencil Work To Make Your Castle Drawing Permanent
Drawing Harder Pencil Lines
The drawing starts to show through at this stage and you can still change some stuff at this point, and when you add the heavier pencil lines you get to know where your castle drawing is headed.
The idea here is to define everything and see what it looks like for the ext stage of inking in black ink.
Black Ink The Castles Pencil Lines
Use Black Fine Liners To Ink Over Your Pencil Lines
Inking the castle at this stage makes the castle drawing more permanent and working out the recesses of the darkness that the moon will cast upon the castle subject.
At this stage of the castle drawing I have started to add a little shading on the mountains and this will be finished in the final stages of the castles drawing.
Finish The Shading Of Your Castle Design
Adding The Final Touches Of Shading To Your Castle
After all of this sketching lightly and then inking, we go over the shading to create more depth in your concept castle drawing, I like drawing and adding depth to mountainous rubble and the final castle drawing you can really draw them anyway you want, the castle can be a fixed point and actually part of the mountain or something entirely different, this little drawing tutorial is not meant to make you draw the way I do or something like that, I wanted to write and draw a step by step guide just to give a few pointers as to draw a fantasy castle, the rest is up to you as an artist...Go draw castles...and maybe make your own hubpage about it!!
Other Fantasy Castle Drawing References And Resources
- French Castles: Bouges
This chateau in the heart of France, can satisfy the most demanding taste. It has a 40 acre park, French gardens, a museum of horse drawn carriages and hunting lodges.
Drawing Fantasy Landscapes Buy The Book On Amazon
 | Amazon Price: $13.38 List Price: $24.99 |
See Some Drawing Fantasy Art Videos On My Youtube Channel
- Draw Fantasy Art Videos Of Inspiration
Videos which show drawings in progress and how to draw videos of me Wayne Tully drawing fantasy art.
Draw Fantasy Art
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- Drawing Fantasy Art: How To Draw A Robot
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- How to Draw and Paint Fantasy Art Vampires with Scott Purdy - book review
Learn to draw and paint Vampires with Scott Purdy fantasy artist - 17 months ago
- Fantasy Art Drawing: How To Draw An Ugly Troll
How to draw an ugly troll, simple step by step drawings on how to draw a troll. - 3 years ago
- Fantasy Art Drawing: How To Draw A Demon Face
How to draw a demon face step by step tutorial. Looking at a demonic face to draw, hopefully this will inspire you to draw your own demon face and create something cool. - 4 years ago
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Fantasy Castle Drawing CommentsLoading...
Any ideas on how to become a better drawer please. I LOVE drawing and I am good but I wanna get better. I practice a lot, and I wanna be better at shading... any tips??? Do you paint? I also wanna paint, I suck at it but I really wanna learn!! If you paint could you give me some tips to become better at everything about it, I really am bad lol thanks
Not bad! I like the rules.. keeps it relatively simple
I love fantasy art, I practice a lot and hope to be as good as you one day! x
I love and love and love and love haunted castles
Thats Amazing!
Cheers now! A simple way of looking at it is if light is coming from one direction, then the exact opposite direction will be the shadow area, so for example the left side light is shining on objects, then the right side of the objects will be in shadow or gradual tones....
I think I'll be creating a hubpage about this and shading too soon!
Great hub but as always I've got in trouble when you mentioned the light source - even if I decide where the lights is going from it still doesn't tell me anything about where to draw shadows. I'm not an artist, I just can't see it. Is there any logical rule or something I could use to do know how to do it?
its fantastic
Cheers now! Yes I really drew that castle, whilst not a perfect castle it is nevertheless an idea of one that people can take away and draw for themselves or draw something entirely different and better.....Art is what you make it and drawing fantasy art is about exploring your imagination!
lol wat ar u tlkin bout lol xx i love tht drawin nd by the way hav u really drew tht........
the pictures should be big
Cheers now! Have done a few of these drawing hubpages so far and there's more to come, thanks for stopping by!
Very nice, I like your perspective on the castle.... Very Comic bookie! ;)
i love this.it is so cool
Nice work. Without drawing and art I would go insane!
Wow these castles are challenging but fun to draw!!
hey this is the kid that said hed be useing some of ur drawings to get a losse grip on a flash book... welll i drew some stuff u should check out my hub it has a few things i drew http://hubpages.com/hub/some-art-I-will-be-useing- and u could be my first follower :)
Thanks Linda!
Wonderful... I appreciate all the drawing help I can get!
Wow these are some really awesome drawings. i so wish i had the skills to draw that well. Nice job
Cheers now!....yeah I get 50, 60 or sometimes over a 100 hits a day on each drawing hubpage tutorial.....I've begun to increase my out put with these drawing tutorials now and will continue to create them in varying areas of art.
You make the process of drawing look so easy. Great stuff. Do you get a lot of visitors to your drawing hubs?
Great stuff. Nice bold simple pictures. I used to love drawing castles.
OMG! i am 10 and i love to draw... i wanted to learn how to draw castles and i just drew it!!!!! I love this castle!. I will cherish it forever!...i hope
Cheers there Pcunix!
I've got more in the pipeline, just a good few of them will be going on my blog and then I could rewrite some and do new drawings for over here too!!
I hope you find them of use, as they have been inspirational to many!
Great stuff, I come from a very artistic family, but inherited little talent.
I enjoy drawing, I just don't do it well :-)
I have done bad little cartoons for many of my posts here. I have fun with them and I hope that is what is important.
I'll be studying your drawing posts!
best Castle i'v drawn
Cheers now!
Shouldn't have strayed down this road ! got the drawing bug again ! Very relaxing!Thanks.....
Thanks...I can see another castle drawing hubpage around the corner.....
Great hub! Great step by step instruction.
Yoov got reel talent!
Thanks Velvet!
Yeah give a castle a try and would love to see the results!
cheers!
i really like this, i draw some but i love to learn techinques..i usually draw or paint landscapes..i have lighthouses but never been bold enough to try a castle , but now i will , practice so thank you for this..
Cheers Oliversmum!
I do enjoy drawing this kind of stuff, although I want to try my hand at drawing some fairies and angels as that is more of a challenge because I'm more used to drawing monsters....
Thanks for your comments!
Waynet.Hi. What absolutely beautiful drawings,you are an extremely talented person.I can't draw to save myself,but do admire folks that can,wonderful information on how to achieve drawings like yours as well. Thank you.:) :)
Thanks Anime_nanet!
Got more on the way with videos too!
You are a true artist!!!
Thumbs up!
Cheers malmuhan!
good job thank you dude.
Cheers, I do plan on doing more of these tutorial drawing articles as and when I have the time, so thanks!!
I love your drawings! I'm not much of an artist myself, but if I do ever attempt to draw I'll be sure to read more of your tutorials :)
Good good! Patricia!
If ever you need help with some more sketches, just tell us what you want as ideas and I'll draw up a hubpage with some sketches and stuff!
I think i will find your hub page interesting and helpful as I am trying to get more ideas on some pictures for my next Children's book. Thank you for your drawings as they might inspire something for me to draw next. LOL
Cheers again Mike!
I've started a new castle drawing hubpage on another account and hopefully I should improve upon this one too.
Nice hub! Glad I found your spooky castle right before Halloween, it was very inspiring! Thanks for all your contributions, you are incredibly talented!
Cheers SweetyCheeks!
I like drawing castles, they is fun!
Wicked Hub !!!
Cheers I like drawing castles!
The best yet!
Thanks Leslie!
I'd like to get better at drawing and do more of these drawing tutorials.
Beautifully done! Good job. You are a great artist.
Thank you Eonsaway!
I enjoyed drawing it, but I may do another example either added to this one or a completely separate hubpage altogether as I feel it looked okay, but I might do another example which captures what I wanted to draw for a castle.
Really like the way you have a twist-factor going on in the composition. The contrast is great. I love to do imaginary work it's my favorite. Your castle is inspiring!
Thanks Dheeraji!
I do have more of these planned, but with the release of an online business fairly soon, all time has been taken up with marketing plans and cash flow analysis for the business, but I do plan on finishing all of my draft hubpages soon!
Hey Wanye,
I would just like to say that this is a awesome hub and pretty good art work you got there. Very good indeed.
Wish I could draw an good as this :)
ahh! I've done that a couple of times...with drawings it is easy to backtrack and trace the steps as I've done that too, but paintings I just don't have the energy to backtrack steps....got a few painting hubpages in the works so...
I was just creating a watercolor today, thinking that I should take pictures as I go to do something similar. But I kept going. :)
Thanks Lakeerieartists!!
I like doing these drawing hubs...must have found my calling!!!
I like your step by step method of teaching drawing.
Cheers Mick!
I am in the process of doing a few other castles and stuff here at hubpages....so keep an eye and ear out!
Watcha Wayne,
excellent, useful and well executed How To article.
best Mick
Cheers now Robert!
I've always drawn variations of castles, in fact one of my best ones was one I drew A3 size in just pencil and it was the best castle drawing I ever did, but it just disappeared when I moved house.
Rocks are just wonderful to draw, I could draw them all day and also rubble, the randomness of rocks and rubble line and shade, just make me add lots of details sometimes.
I have a hubpage in draft on how to draw a lord of the rings tower inspired from the films, but I don't know when I'll finish that one...!!?
This castle article rocks! I hadn't found anything on drawing fantasy castles and have been floundering along doing it my own way, the best one I did is a small watercolour where I covered the entrance and much of the lower area with mist.
I won't usually stick to your rules, because it depends on the context and the story -- maybe the entrance isn't necessarily visible in the scene that I want to illustrate. But the difficult approach on a high peak is historical as well as artistic, that makes it extremely defensible. Unless dragons are landing of course.
That and depending on the story I may not be looking at it at night. Yours are beautiful and so atmospheric. You have a unique, powerful style with rocks and mountains that's almost organic. Cherish it and keep drawing castles!
Thanks Deltachord! I enjoyed drawing this castle and am sure it will be the first of many and yes some of the castles in Europe look fantastic and would love to visit them.
Hi Waynet,
I like your castle drawing. I used to watch a show called Great Castles of Europe. I've always been fascinated with castles and enjoyed your article.
Cheers write away, When I learned to draw a castle this way as a child it has stuck with me forever, I like going sight seeing and taking pictures of castles and would love to visit some all over the world.
I thought you wrote a good informative article on castle drawings. I've always been a big fan of the castle inside and out.
Yes this will be a large project and it will be one that will be good to do, as drawing is one of my number one hobbies!
Aree_36 - Cheers too, the castle drawing is intended as just a concept sketch and should just be used for inspiration and not actual fact realism.
I enjoy your picture but I don't the moon and the wave.
It sounds like a massive project, but I am sure once completed you will get a lot of traffic. I drew a castle once for a six grade art class, but I do not know what happened to it.
Cheers now Sweetie and well done for winning the hubmob for your mothers day hub!!
As for my tutorials I have about 14 more how to draw ones in draft, but on paper I have 100+ all mapped out and counting, I thought I might aswell get on with it, so that I can build up something useful as one big interlinked content library all of my own!!
I just noticed your forum post, so I decided to check out your hub. You do draw very well and explain these tutorials quite well Wayne. I hope you continue to update your older hubs with the photos of your drawings.
Cheers Kerryg! Drawing gets better with age and lots of beer!!
Ms Chievous, Dragons are definitely on the list of unpublished hubpages I have in draft, so yes they do go with castles.
I'd like to beef these "how to draw" article tutorials up over time with multiple examples.
Cheers for the comment!
Very cool! I wish I could draw better.
Really neat idea for a hub! Where are the dragons? Dragons go with castles!
Yes, Isn't he the comic book artist? I've seen quite a bit of his artwork and it is truly inspirational, I remember seeing a tree sprite pen and ink drawing he did and that was fantastic! I've even thought about buying it!
Cheers now!!
Cool...! (I followed Sufi over here.) Do you know the work of Bryan Talbot, out of curiousity?
Ha! no I have enough reference photos of sumo wrestlers and other stuff I am taking inspiration from, thanks for your suggestion though lol!
Need a model? ;)
Cheers Sufidreamer & tdarby!
I'm trying to go through my unpublished hubs and complete them as I have lots of how to draw tutorials in draft, the next one is how to an ugly troll, just need to do a few sketches.
Thanks for your comments!!
Thanks, this is a fun hub. Good, careful advice on how to draw castles.
Quality, Wayne - I love castles, especially with lots of bats flying across the face of the moon! The spookier, the better.
waynet Hub Author 4 months ago
I'll be doing more drawing and painting tutorials and videos in the future, so look for them soon cheers now!